I realize that I haven’t posted anything since December 5th when Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits came through NYC and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the holiday season did me in mentally and physically from Thanksgiving to Christmas and I had to take a little break from writing. I’m happy to report, though, that I saw Bobby Joe Ebola’s Corbett and Dan as well as Honah Lee in Trenton and was able to catch all of Bobby Joe Ebola’s NYC and Brooklyn shows. They are the nicest guys ever and made it back to the East Bay safe and sound after the tour. Good Times and Good News! They are releasing more music mayhem in the coming year, I’ll keep you posted.

There’s not that much news-wise going on with Green Day at the moment since their tour ended, but Mike Dirnt and his wife Brittney did have a baby daughter in November by the name of Ryan Ruby. Congrats to them! I also heard that Billie Joe and Tre played a club somewhere in California, but I really didn’t pay that much attention to it. News leaked through a Chicago blog that Billie Joe was in town talking with producers about a Chicago-based run of American Idiot, but, it’s a blog and those are rumors, so take it with a grain of salt. I post off-the-beaten trail news items on my GreenDayMind Twitter, so go and follow me for Green Day and American Idiot items as well as news of other bands. Other than that, it’s been pretty quiet mostly, and you can read up on any other information about the band on their official site, GreenDay.com and of course, the GreenDayAuthority, as well.

Yes, it is Awesome as Fuck – Live CD/DVD, March 2011

Amazon.com put up a pre-sale announcement regarding Green Day’s upcoming live CD/DVD called “Awesome As Fuck,” or… AAF for short. As you may know, the title comes from signs made by fans that morphed from a “Thanks” to Green Day in Paris to letting Green Day know that they were “Awesome As Fuck” in Denver and a simple, “Welcome Home” in San Francisco. If you’d like to read more about the signs, you can read a post I wrote back in September that explains both the origin of the signs and the Awesome As Fuck phrasePunknews.com linked to it recently, and that kinda made my day! But don’t read the comments to the Punk News posting, because of course “punks” hate Green Day and take every opportunity to slag them off that they can take. They are arses.

Green Day’s Youtube Channel briefly posted a banner announcing the album, but it was quickly taken down. Fortunately, someone at the Green Day Community snagged it before it disappeared:

Awesome as Fuck Live CD/DVD Banner

It’s a great logo and amazing that Green Day’s Pink Bunny will possibly be the artwork for the album. There’s no official details on the nature of the recording yet, but word on the street is that the DVD portion of the set is from a show in Japan and that the live album CD will be from Green Day’s North American Amphitheater Tour from this summer, but nothing is confirmed yet. I repeat: Nothing is Confirmed Yet, so don’t ask me because I don’t know! All we really know is that the title of the live album will be Awesome As Fuck and that the release date as of now is March 15, 2011, so stay tuned until further notice!

Billie Joe on Broadway Returns for January/February Run and New York
Times Interview with Michael Mayer and Patrick Healey

Billie Joe at St. Jimmy - Photo by Getty?

Billie Joe returns to Broadway in January and February, and Green Day Land is abuzz with excitement. Fortunately fans from around the world will be coming in for it, but unfortunately, those same fans have to be prepared for bad weather that may get them stuck coming in and out of New York City. In fact, as I write this, I’m stuck in Detroit (my hometown) after my flight back to New York was cancelled on Sunday due to a snow thunderstorm/blizzard that hit the East Coast and shut down travel from trains, planes and automobiles. If you’ve ever been stuck in Detroit, you know that I’m miserable, but, I’ll get out eventually. I hope. All I can say is be prepared for winter weather. I remember when I went to see Pinhead Gunpowder back in February when a winter storm caused major havoc and I had to scramble to get to Berkeley for the once-in-a-lifetime chance of seeing the mercurial Pinhead Gunpowder play a benefit show at 924 Gilman for their friend, Anandi. It was well-worth it, but nerve-wracking nonetheless. We are all going to pretend that the weather will be lovely from here on out and everyone coming in from the nether regions of the world to see Billie Joe on Broadway will encounter only good weather and good times. Prayers to the Lushie Gods are certainly in order for that one! Billie Joe will be back starting this weekend, January 1st, and though he will have two weeks off during the two months, there will be a total of fifty performances with him staring as St. Jimmy. The schedule for Billie Joe’s performances can be found at the American Idiot on Broadway site. Tony Vincent, who originated the role of St. Jimmy that Billie Joe will be doing, leaves the cast as of December 30, 2010. I was going to see Tony again in the show this week, but sadly, Snowpacalypse 2010 will now prevent that.

Patrick Healey, an Arts and Entertainment writer at the New York Times, will be interviewing Armstrong and Michael Mayer coming up on January 9th at the Times Building on 43rd and 8th Avenue. (Information on the sold-out event can be found here.) If you remember when Jordan Roth interviewed Armstrong and Mayer at the 92 Street Y back in September, the questions were pretty run-of-the-mill and, well, tame. Of course, at the American Idiottalkbacks, there were a lot of good questions as well as uninformative ones such as “Can I give you a hug, Billie Joe?” but I have a feeling that Healey just won’t be asking the questions that are really on the minds of fans, and with that in mind, the ever-funny Abbey Fox has written up a Twitter-based list of 17 questions that she would like to ask Billie Joe.

I don’t really want to see Billie Joe’s feet (though if the opportunity arose…), but she has composed some classic and funny rejoinders that will unfortunately, never be asked, but are on the minds of many Green Day fans – or, at least the Mind of Abbey. I asked her if I could reprint her questions below. Here’s the list, and let’s hope that Healey will get the message and ask at least one question. After all, Jordan Roth did use one of Abbey’s questions at the 92 Street Y. I hope you are reading this, Healey!

17) The audience heard you shrieking backstage before your St. Jimmy entrance. It got the audience pumped too. Tell us about that. @greenday

And with that, I’m going to go back to my Mom’s house in Detroit and be stuck some more until I can manage to make it to NYC. I hope you all had a lovely holiday and an excellent upcoming New Year’s Eve.

West Coast sunshine, music and hilarity is coming to brighten our oncoming East Coast Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), as the days get colder and Winter lurks just around the corner. Brr. The East Bay‘s Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits are making their way to New York, New Jersey and surrounding areas! Woohoo! I mentioned back in October when Bobby Joe Ebola began spreading their Children MacNuggit wings again after a “Bush Administration-era hiatus,” that they were flying this way in December and well, it’s December and they are… uh… on their way!

Before arriving in New York and New Jersey, the Ebola duo of Corbett Redford III and Dan Abbott will kick off a mini-“Kill Yourself with Hugs” tour with Tartar Control for four California shows from 12/2-12/5/2010 and head straight to Minneapolis afterward on 12/6 for the start of the “Get a Bathroom Pass” tour with shows at two venues. From there, it’s a whirlwind, two-week tour through the Midwest and East Coast from Monday, December 6th to Monday, December 20th, including said Minneapolis, along with Duluth, MN, Appleton and Milwaukee, WI, Chicago, and Lansing, MI before hitting Philadelphia and Wilkes-Barre, PA, Trenton, Brooklyn, New York City, and finally, Boston. Whew! That schedule is exhausting just thinking of, but after a ten-year break from working as a duo, Abbott and Redford III are ready for road action, and being from California, they’ll have to stay constantly on the move around these parts just to stay warm.

I’ve been listening to their new album, F, and I highly recommend heading over to Silver Sprocket Records for a hard copy or Amazon for a digital download. If my recommendation doesn’t convince you, you can read a review of the album at the indie music blog, FensePost. The review includes two songs, “The Only Difference” and “Life is Excellent,” a song that makes me laugh and cry and shout out loud with its ranty yet bouncy chorus of “Life is excellent, the tap water tastes like excrement, the skies rain poison, but I’ve got to pay the rent.” Well, ain’t that the truth?

It’s a bit difficult to categorize their music, but the tags on their Bandcamp site (where you can hear two live recordings of the band) pretty much sum them up: anti-folkblack metalalternative popcomedy rockOakland. Uh, ok. Suffice it to say that you think their songs will be serious from the music, and then all of sudden they’re singing about polyamorous girlfriends (“Poly”) or friends and radiation poisoning (“The Crazy”) or bands that go on killing sprees (“Postcards from Inferno (I’ll See You in Hell)”). In other words, you never know in what direction their songs will take you, but it’s certain that you’ll laugh. Through the laughter of F there are serious underlying themes about migrant workers, consumerism, or environmental damage, among others, but they never hit you over the head with it. Or, hardly ever. I mean, with a song called “Sweet S**t of Christ,” you pretty much know what side of the religious coin they rest on. Their philosophy might be summed up in a Ghandi quote mentioned by Redford III in an interview at Uncle Critic: “If I had no sense of humor, I would have long ago committed suicide.” Yep. That about sums it up for me.

By the way, Billie Joe Armstrong has mentioned them as one of his favorite bands, and they “borrowed” one of Mike Dirnt’s cars for their recent “Freaky Baby” video while he was on tour. I believe that they eventually told him. I hope.

So do yourself a favor and fend off the SAD by catching them on the road when they come to a Midwest/East Coast town near you. I’ll be — at the least and hopefully all — in attendance at two of their shows when they hit New York, Don Pedro’s in Brooklyn, and The Cake Shop in Manhattan. I’m super excited by both shows, particularly the Don Pedro show as the Max Levine Ensemble, who I’ve heard a lot about but have never been able to catch (along with 50 Million, Weird Fantasy Band and Cheesequake) will be on the night’s bill with them. The Cake Shop show is sure to be fun, too, as it’s a Mike Cm Production show with local bands, Ergquist, House Boat, Mirrors and Wires, and the Tattletales. And remember, you get a free pizza with a purchase of a beer at Lulu’s in Brooklyn. Rumors are that they’ll be playing at ABC No Rio on the Lower East Side in Manhattan and maybe New Brunswick, NJ on Saturday, Dec. 18th, but as of now, there’s no confirmation.

Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits are looking for venue help with the Wilkes-Barre show, so if you can lend a hand in that surrounding area, give the band a shout-out on Facebook or their official contact page. For tour information and locations for the complete “Get a Bathroom Pass” tour, head on over to the Year-End Recap and Tour Page. See ya there!

Here’s two videos of Bobby Joe Ebola, both from shows at Gilman, “Kool-Aid Man” from a 2007 show and a song from their current album, F, called “Sandwiches and Ammunition” from a April Fool’s Day performance in 2010.

I’ve gotten to know Mike since that night at Madison Square Garden. I was very wary at first, but somehow this crazy, sweet kid won me over. He’s a legend around the punk and crusty scene in New York, known as an avid lover of music, a little loopy, and an up-and-coming music promoter. When I met Mike late in 2009, he was in a bad place in regards to drugs and alcohol. Since January 2010 thereabouts, he’s been kicking his habit. It hasn’t been easy for him, but it’s never easy to kick a habit and stay true to yourself in a world where everyone wants you to conform… though every once in a while, you might have to confrom just a little, but hopefully not too much.

Mike was really excited (more than usual, which is saying a lot for Mike), about the possibility of having the graphic artist, zine writer and musician, Fly, do one of her PEOP sketches of him. Fly, (whose website can be found here) first published PEOPs: Portraits and Stories of People back in 2003. Her PEOP sketches combine drawings of her subject with conversational dialogue from her sketching session with them. The sketch and part of that conversation are then combined into a drawing. Kristy Eldredge summed up PEOPs in her review from 2004:

The people Fly features are artists, musicians, activists and seekers. A few are well known – Lydia Lunch, Art Spiegelman, John Zorn – but most are anonymous members of what used to be known as the underground. (In these days when the maw of media shines a spotlight on everything in its path, nothing seems underground.) In general they’re creative people who don’t want mainstream careers, draw inspiration from music and find meaning in collective action.

PEOPs #5, which includes portraits of Aaron Cometbus and Jello Biafra, can be purchased at Microcosm Publishing. Mike’s PEOP may be included in the next edition, here’s hoping! UPDATE: As Abbey noted in the comments, a PEOP is also featured monthly in Maximum RocknRoll, so here’s hoping it appears in one or the other.